Northeast Hive

From the mortuary you enter the
Hive. To learn more about the hive, talk to the citizens. Be careful
however with the Hive thugs. Some of them attack you when you
ask them a question and their friends will help them. If you like
to fight and gain some XP go for it, if not then save regularly
and run away. Talk to everyone else though, they give you valuable
information of the environment. One thing you will learn is that
there are 5 areas in the hive Northeast, Southeast, Northeast,
Southwest and the Ragpicker's Square. Additionally there is also
an alley between the NE and the SW.

Pox

Near the entrance to the Mortuary stands a
collector named Pox. He knows you and has means of taking you
inside the mortuary. You just got out and don't want to go in
just yet, but it might come in handy at a later time.

A Monument

At the Dustman Monument you'll meet Sev'Tai.
She'll offer the possibility to go on a quest to kill three
Dog Barking thugs that killed here sister. Well that's something
we'll do at a later time. Also talk to the dustman there about
the monument and what it is for.

Where is my plane

There is also a woman running around, stop
her and find out her name is Ingress. She'll tell you about
the gates to the other planes and that she has been trying to
find the gate back to her own plane. Offer to help her in finding
an experienced planewalker that can lead her back home.

Baen the Sender

Baen the sender is somewhere walking around
there too. He is looking for somebody named Craddock because
he needs to give him a message. Offer him to give Craddock the
message when you find him.

You also meet Annah at the monument in the
centre. You can ask her about Pharod, but you don't get a lot
wiser from her yet.

The Post

There is a zombie named "The Post" from which
you can get a cobblestone (another useless item). He also has
some notices on him, read them. One of them is a message about
a hiring ad by a dustman named Norochj at the Gathering Dust
Bar, Which is the building behind the zombie. Also a notice
from the "office of Vermin and Decease control" that offer a
bounty for every rat-tail that is brought to them. And last
but not least it has some graffiti about Pharod.

Angyar and the Dustmen

Now before you go into the bar first pay a
visit to the house at the SE corner of the area. This is Angyar's
house (AR0103),
talk to his wife, She will tell you that Angyar has signed a
contract with Mortai Gravesend. Promise her to try and undo
it. This is the time to pay a visit to the Gathering Dust Bar
(AR0205).
Go talk to Norochj who will ask you to look into some troubles
at the Mausoleum. Ofcourse you need the experience so you agree.
Another dustman hanging around there is Awaiting-Death who wants
to kill himself. It's up to you to stop him (500XP). Then there
is Sere the Sceptic, who is sceptic (what a surprise). Go along
with her scepticism and gain 500XP. Now talk to Mortai Gravesend
who offers you a contract for 50 copper pieces, in order for
the Dustmen to use your body after you've died. This is the
type of contract Angyar signed. Just convince him to give you
the contract of Angyar back and get 500XP and the contract.
Finally talk to Emoric who wants to know where Pharod gets the
bodies. Through him you can also join the dustmen. For the moment
we do nothing of the kind and we leave the bar. Go back to Angyar
and tear up the contract (750XP). Ask him a favour and let him
tell you where Pharod is. He tells you the location and the
way to get there. He appears to be on the other side of the
portal at the Ragpickers Square through which you can jump holding
some junk in your hand. Now this is what I call some solid information.

Character decisions

Before we go on, let's get back to some of
the game playing stuff. You start out in the game as a fighter,
but you have the opportunity to change to a mage or a thief.
If you wish to do so then go to the Ragpicker's square first.
There you can become either a mage or a thief. If you do not
wish to become a mage then you can still go there because there
are some XP's to be gained saying that you want to be a mage.
You can then still decide in the end not to become a mage and
have the XP anyhow. If you want to be a mage or a thief this
is the time to change, because the XP's you got up to now are
added to your experience as a fighter. When you change to a
mage, you basically restart and do not inherit the XP's you
have as a fighter. So you should change early on in the game
if you want to become a mage or a thief. I became a mage because
the spell animations are so cool and this game emphasises not
so much on combat in the early part of the game so you do get
the time to raise your stats as a mage in order to get through
the game. If you wish to become a mage or a thief then go to
the north-east and progress to the next area then immediately
go to the north and move on to the Ragpicker's square (which
is described on the next page).